MANILA, 29 October 2006 — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday appealed once again to Filipinos abroad who have yet to sign up as overseas absentee voters to do so now before the registration ends on Tuesday.
Election Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. said that while the half million or so total of overseas Filipinos registered as absentee voters is not negligible, a bigger number would be better to dissuade lawmakers who are opposed to the exercise from pushing for a repeal of the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) law.
“We still have a few days left to sign up. We appeal to our kababayan who have not yet registered not to squander that opportunity,” Tuason told Arab News earlier by phone.
He had said another extension of the registration deadline, as sought by some groups, would no longer be possible because of time constraints.
“Registration activities do not stop on the actual registration itself,” said Tuason, who is tasked to supervise the OAV exercise.
As soon as the registration closes on Oct. 31, the Philippine embassies and consulates abroad will send the documents to Manila. Comelec personnel will then validate each application and come up with the Certified List of Overseas Absentee Voters (CLOAV) by Jan. 15.
Only those whose application are approved and included in the list would be allowed to vote in the election for senators and party-list representatives on April 14, 2007.
According to the OAV Secretariat of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Filipinos in Saudi Arabia still accounted for the highest number of registered absentee voters, despite the dismal turnout since registration opened in September 2005.
As of Oct. 25, at least 7,940 registered in Saudi Arabia, a little short of the 8,615 in the United States.
Added with those registered in 2003, however, the total for Saudi Arabia is about 105,000 as against the US total of about 18,000.
Hong Kong remained second to Saudi Arabia with about 95,000, while those in the United Arab Emirates are estimated to have reached 26,500.
The overall total in 2003 of 364,000 plus the 131,090 new registrants stands at 495,090. Tuason noted that the figure could surpass 500,000 if the expected last-minute turnout that Filipinos are known for would materialize.
Of the new registrants, 63 percent signed up in Manila. Some 38,535 signed up at the Comelec satellite registration center at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and 46,723 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
The rest signed up in Asia-Pacific countries (12,432 or 9 percent), Middle East and African countries (19,005 or 14 percent), the Americas (12,279 or 9 percent) and Europe (7,465 or 5 percent).
